01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 9, 2005

THE SMELL -- it's terrible. How could the Bay smell that bad?" That sums up the calls I have received from Cranston's Edgewood residents who live near Stillhouse Cove. Like the people near the Conimicut beaches, the Edgewood residents are experiencing the effects of an overfed Narragansett Bay.

Nitrogen is food for the Bay: All the Bay's vegetation, from single cells to thickly growing eel grass, needs nitrogen. But what happens when an ecosystem has too much food? The system becomes unbalanced. It becomes stressed and unhealthy. It starts to die.

On the mud flats in Stillhouse Cove lies a thick layer of sea lettuce. Every tide cycle leaves more of it. Hot sun and moist air make this vegetation rot, a process that releases foul-smelling gases. According to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the gases are so strong that they exceed air health standards. So for residents of Edgewood, living next to the Bay has become a risk to their health.

The overfeeding of the Bay causes the sea-lettuce mats, which have consequences elsewhere in the upper Bay, posing an ongoing threat to marine life as well as a nuisance to people who want to enjoy a clean, healthy Bay.

For the short term, the sea lettuce must be removed from the mud flats. The Department of Environmental Management has expanded its sea-lettuce gathering beyond Conimicut Point to include Stillhouse Cove.

Removing the sea lettuce seems to help, but it is expensive, and certainly not a real solution. The lasting solution is to rebalance the ecosystem, by reducing the amount of nitrogen flowing into the Bay.

Last year, the Rhode Island General Assembly boldly passed legislation mandating a 33-percent reduction in nitrogen flowing into the Bay. Because nitrogen is not actually a pollutant, but a nutrient, reduction goals have to be carefully developed. The 33-percent objective was the recommendation of a team of marine scientists who responded to the governor's request for advice.

To achieve the 33-percent goal, the scientists said that the nitrogen discharge at wastewater plants had to be reduced by 50 percent.

Acting quickly, the DEM issued new draft permits last February for four wastewater-treatment facilities, on the Providence, Seekonk and Blackstone rivers. Lowering these limits is the single most important step that can be taken to improve water quality in Narragansett Bay. The lowered nitrogen limits -- of 5 milligrams per liter (mg/L) for Fields Point, Bucklin and Woonsocket, and 8 mg/L for East Providence -- would reduce their nitrogen output by 50 percent.

In July, the four wastewater-treatment-plant operators appealed the new limits. Filing permit appeals can be a step toward finalizing the consent agreements and settling details of timing and technical requirements. Or appeals can mark the beginning of a fight over limits, which indefinitely prolongs the status quo.

A legal fight over the limits would be a disaster for Narragansett Bay. Without removing the sea lettuce, the stench will only get worse, in more areas of the upper Bay. The proposed permit limits are a reasonable first step.

Short of significantly revising the limits or extending implementation time frames beyond what is reasonable, the DEM must do all it can to reach an agreement with the sewage-treatment-plant operators. Reducing nitrogen at a reasonable cost will mean using new nitrogen-removal technologies; the sewage-plant operators' concerns about legal risks need to be fairly addressed.

By passing the Open Space, Clean Water bond last fall, Rhode Island voters have already decided to invest in nitrogen reduction. After a thorough review of the funding needed, Governor Carcieri has already agreed that an additional $26 million in bond capacity should be on the 2006 ballot. The funding plan is in place. Progress depends on getting the new permit agreements finalized as soon as possible.

Reducing total nitrogen loads by 33 percent by meeting these new limits would be a strong start toward restoring the ecological balance of Narragansett Bay. It is an urgent priority. Those who delay the process need to answer to the people living in Edgewood and Conimicut -- they need to smell the stench that makes living next to the Bay almost unbearable.

Curt Spalding is executive director of Save the Bay.